WALSALL have a few off-field issues right now with anti-board protests but on the field last night the players delivered a performance to make everyone connected with the club proud.

This was a match to go down in club history. Walsall’s defeat, meted out in the fourth minute of stoppage time, was the equal of many, many a victiory achieved in easier circumstances.

Reduced to ten men in the 21st minute by a red card for Mark Hughes, the Saddlers were battling uphill. Two-nil down at half-time, that hill was a mountain.

They climbed that mountain. All ten left on the pitch gave the required extra 20 per cent and, incredibly, bossed the second half. Troy Deeney scored twice in six minutes then substitute Alex Nicholls fired the Saddlers in front seven minutes from time.

Huddersfield were shell-shocked, but poured forward to force last-gasp goals from Anthony Kay and Lee Novak for a sensational victory.

Such drama looked highly unlikely when Hughes bundled over Anthony Pilkington deep in the box. It was an indisputable red card - Walsall’s fifth in nine games and Hughes’s second in four - and a stonewall penalty which Theo Robinson converted.

After Jordan Rhodes made it 2-0 in first-half injury time the Terriers thought they were home and dry. But, with this bizarrely unpredictable Walsall side, who can ever know?

Hampered further by the loss of Darren Byfield through injury the Saddlers battled superbly. Deeney supplied the first glint of what was to come on 63 minutes when he chased an apparently lost cause, harried Alex Smithies and Peter Clarke into confusion and scrambled the ball home. Six minutes later, some pinball sent the ball into Deeney’s path and he hooked home a superb volley.

Seven minutes from time Nicholls turned 14 yards out and sent a low shot into the botom corner. The travelling Saddlers fans were ecstatic.

Hudersfield’s were aghast. But at last the Terriers exploited their extra man. In the 90th minute, Kay scrambled the ball home and deep in stoppage time Novak slammed in the winner. A wonderful match ended with the Saddlers, given a standing ovation by their fans, heroic in defeat.